“You’ve done it, my Lord, you’ve done it!” Watson exclaimed. “How could you be so brilliant?”
“You must thank Miss Bell for your rescue,” the Marquis replied triumphantly.
“Now I want you to change as quickly as you can into the clothes which you are sitting on.”
Watson laughed.
“I thought,” he said, “my seat felt somewhat uncomfortable, my Lord.”
The Marquis held out his arms and pulled Simona close to him.
“Now to save Watson’s blushes,” he said in an ordinary tone as if they were sitting round the fireside, “you must close your eyes or hide your face against me.”
He drew her still closer as he spoke.
Suddenly, because the tension was over, Simona felt herself beginning to cry. She tried to check it, but the tears ran down her cheeks.
Now she was crying tempestuously as a child
